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Steep Garden Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 1 of 20 Steep Garden Holmbush is a house that is set in a couple of acres of land in the quiet countryside of Somerset. I was asked by friends who were living there to do a design for a particular area of the land that had been untended for some time. This is a site that provided some interesting challenges. The whole piece of land is north facing, but the area being designed is particularly steep, with little soil & a lot of rocks. At the bottom of the slope, where a polytunnel once stood, the land suddenly becomes quite flat & very marshy. www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 2 of 20 The Design Process For this design I am going to base the process around the SADIM design framework; Survey, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Maintenance. This was a design that I started upon while living temporarily with my friends Sue & Steve in Somerset. They had a house set in an acre of land on the north side of a steep hill. They had done a lot of groundwork when they moved in 15 years previously, to provide vehicular access to the house & this regularly travelled route obviously became their zone 1. A lawn stretched down from the front of the house to a line of trees running diagonally up the slope & this got regular attention, but beyond these trees the land had often been neglected from lack of time & from being 'Out of sight, out of mind'. Survey The first part of my survey was to have a look at the land with the client (Sue; my landlady at the time), to take some photographs & go through my client questionnaire with her. Key Elements of Client Survey The steep slope back up towards the house - the Questionnaire current path goes straight up this angle! 1. Site size: Approx 60 m x 35m sides, roughly triangular 2. Number of people on site and relationships: Two; Sue & Steve (partners), plus myself (lodger) & a lot of rescued animals & birds. www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 3 of 20 3. Physical challenges: Steepness of slope, lack of soil upon slope, marshy at bottom of slope. 4. Occupations and skills: Sue knows a lot about herbs medicinally & some growing experience, Steve good with groundwork & building. 5. Food needs: Garden required for some food & medicine production, some recreational space. 6. Ages: Both later middle age, but active. 7. Financial situation: Not very abundant, most of income goes into keeping the animals & paying bills. One of the cats making good use of the on site resources 8. On site resources: Lots of salvaged bits & pieces, building equipment (i.e. cement mixer), lots of rocks & stones, plants to propagate from, logs to make steps with, long grass & bramble for mulch, self-sown saplings, old polytunnel frame, food waste, manure from animals (bedding) & humans. 9. Security of clients: Seems to be OK, have lived there 15 years. 10. Water catchment: Marsh & pond at the bottom of the slope! Large pond at the top of the slope, though water not particularly directed into it. Log cabin & house roofs, but no rain butts. 11. Soil: Non-existent virtually on the steep slope, just a couple of pockets of shallower slope with more on it. Quite deep, but marshy at the bottom of the slope (where it has all washed down to). www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 4 of 20 12. Aspect: North facing, high & quite exposed. Tall conifer trees below, & for some distance, but they are not high enough to offer any wind protection. Great views over the surrounding countryside, no houses to be seen except in the distance. 13. Available utilities : Two water taps at either end of the old polytunnel site (see base map). No other utilities closer than the house or the outbuildings (a similar distance away). 14. Addresses of local like minded people: Terry Barker, Thornecombe (Vegan with an animal rescue focus, but interested in plants & permaculture to a degree). 15. Clients wants and needs (PASTE): * Fruit & nut trees. * Soft fruit bushes. * Medicinal plants. * Wildlife habitats. * Forage for chickens. * Quiet meditation space. * Pathways. * Secure boundary fence at the bottom. * Low maintenance. * Seats with views. * Nice view over garden from log cabin. Having gone around the site with Sue, I then got out my compass & started making some more detailed measurements. I paced out the distances, taking into account the way the thick undergrowth was shortening my paces & I measured some angles by taking bearings with my compass. The slopes were quite complex & varied from very steep at places near the top to quite shallow near the bottom. As I was going to be on site implementing the design I didn't feel a need to contour it at this point, so I just made notes about the steepest areas & the general direction of the slope. www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 5 of 20 The precise placement of elements on the site would involve a certain amount of intuition too & so the map was to be more of a guide to work from. I made notes on what existing vegetation & features there were on the site & then headed back up the hill to start putting it all down onto paper. This was the first time that I got to use my 'new' technical drawing board. I had mentioned to Steve that I was looking for one if he ever saw one going cheap. A couple of days later he turned up with one on the back of his pickup that a friend was 'throwing away'.... how often does that happen? It was a very nice surface to work on; making a change from a floor & after a couple of hours drawing I had myself a base map of the area to be designed. The site was clearly bounded on the west side by a fence down the hill under a line of mature trees. The southern boundary consisted of a three foot high wire & post fence. These two boundaries were with neighbours. The third boundary was the line of trees going diagonally back up the hill & the other side of this was the house lawn. www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 6 of 20 To the south at the top of the hill was the log cabin & the large pond & this was unfenced, although too steep to negotiate easily. Certain plants were already thriving on the site; there was a very healthy stand of raspberries near the bottom of the slope, where the nutrients were clearly accumulating. It had suckered around the immediate area, but stopped just above where the soil got marshy. There were a number of small trees dotted around & a large stand of Elder & Bramble at the west end of the slope, providing plenty of habitat for wildlife. A Kiwi & a Grapevine that were originally inside the polytunnel were now entangled around each other & thriving outside of it. A very healthy looking Willow just the other side of the boundary fence made it clear that they would do well here. At the top of the slope, the log cabin had a balcony area overlooking the site & french doors to access it from inside, but no access from there to the garden below. It had a thatched roof, but no guttering. The pond next to it was home to a lot of plants & wildlife, but had no drain into it or out of it. The site was also foraged by the rescued chickens that had free range all over the land. The log steps were still basically sound, though they did need renovating in a couple of places. The path off down to the left had clearly evolved just from the desire to take a shortcut to the other end of the polytunnel or the raspberries & not yet been stepped in the same way. There were sections where it was easy to slip & fall. The metal scaffolding poles that the polytunnel alkathene piping frame was originally placed upon were still hammered into the ground at intervals of a few yards apart along the bottom of the slope. The slope overlooks marshland & forestry belonging to a big estate, but no dwelling. www.aranyagardens.co.uk Extracted from Aranya's Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design Portfolio 1996 - 2003 7 of 20 Analysis This is clearly a zone 2 space & currently only has one entrance & exit path. This comes down the hill & then splits, heading directly for either end of where a polytunnel was once sited. This was obviously the main reason for going down to the site before & now that the polytunnel is no longer there, it has become overgrown. It needs to be made much more inviting as it is not currently a route through to anywhere else & at least one new exit would help with this I feel. A couple of extra routes through the garden would give better access to the trees we are planning to plant & more options on where to walk & look at the views. While there are species that will grow on the steep slope, it makes sense to also try to stop the erosion of soil down the hill. I need to catch the run off water & the nutrient rich humus (leaves etc.) & keep it on the slope where it is needed most.
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